We have lots of news this week, including results from last Saturday's tournament and information about next Saturday's Purchase 'Mech Free-for-All. Read on!
On Saturday the 26th we held a "Weight Loss" tournament. This was something of a variation on a purchase 'Mech FFA where each pilot had a maximum tonnage that they were allowed to use during each mission. Pilots who finished in the top 3rd of the round lost 10 tons, while pilots who finished in the bottom 3rd of the round gained 10 tons. In addition (or rather, subtraction), pilots who won their mission(s) also lost 10 tons. To help even things out a little bit, Veteran pilots started with 80 tons while new players started with 100 tons. (We had 5 new players join us for the tournament - we ran them through a few missions to introduce them to heat mode, then threw them to the wolves!) All BT board game variants were legal for this mission, but no "custom" 'Mechs were allowed even for the owner. (I.e. even I wouldn't have been allowed to take the Templar Roadkill because that's a custom 'Mech, not a board game variant.)
Things started much as you would expect, with the usual suspects winning their rounds and losing weight. As the rounds went on, though, the weight loss started to add up and the results started changing a little bit. Justice, Gurn, and Black Mantis didn't seem to be too fazed by the loss, but it was giving others fits and really helping some of the new players. By the time the finals rolled around, Justice and Gurn were both below 20 tons (Justice at 0, Gurn at 10) but were allowed to take 20-ton 'Mechs. Black Mantis still had 40 tons. Zax had 60 tons. Tatsu and SneakySausage still had 80 tons available, and SoldierAlly still had a whopping 90 tons!
Tatsu's route to the finals was amusing. With about 10 seconds left in the last preliminary mission, Weasel needed one more kill in order to qualify for the finals. Conveniently, Tatsu wandered right in front of his Daishi MC1 and he unloaded the full alpha of 3 x LBX-20 and 2 x Large Laser, bathing Tatsu in blue swirlies. That did the trick and Weasel jumped up the one position he needed. But wait! There's more! A couple of seconds later another 'Mech wandered into the picture, tripped over Tatsu's wreckage, and exploded. That explosion destroyed 2 other 'Mechs, and since the whole chain was triggered by Tatsu's wreckage he got credit for all 3 kills. While he was dead. The mission was a tight one, so those 3 kills with 6 seconds left vaulted Tatsu ahead of Weasel, knocking Weasel back out of the finals and sneaking Tatsu in.
Naturally, Tatsu then proceeded to win the finals and the tournament! He chose an excellent 'Mech for the finals - a 65-ton Clan Linebacker D with 4 x Streak SRM-6 - so Justice's Pirannha and Gurn's Dasher D didn't give him any trouble at all. Justice still managed to finish second and Black Mantis came in third. Congratulations all around!
You won't want to miss next weekend's tournament - we're holding a VWE-legal Purchase 'Mech Free-For-All. (Note: this means that only wall 'Mechs are legal, NOT INCLUDING beta 'Mechs.) Official rules can be found here. The following exceptions will apply:
I.A.2.a. - 1st place will be awarded 9 points, not 10.
I.A.3.A. - There will be 4 rounds. Pilots will have 280 tons of 'Mechs available.
I.A.3.c. - Running date will be Saturday, April 2nd, beginning at 7:00 pm.
II.A. - Cost for entry will be $10, with the normal packages also available.
III.B. - Maps will kept secret until the beginning of the event.
IV.A. - Pilots will have 280 tons of 'Mechs available.
VII.A. - Unfortunately we don't have any Tesla pins to award, but the winner will still be inducted into the Order of Tesla. The tournament winner will also be awarded their own custom 'Mech, design subject to approval by Craig "Pharoah" Evans who manages that process. The winner will also be awarded control of China.
You don't want to miss this event - a custom 'Mech is up for grabs! I hope to see you all on Saturday... until then,
--Roadkill OUT
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Beware the Ides of March. Or at least Justice. Definitely beware of Justice.
Once again it is time for some tournament results - this time from Soto's Randomly Awesome Birthday Bash. We had a great crowd for the tournament, EDGEKOOLZ brought cake, and Soto was thoroughly abused for his birthday.
Soto is fond of the Awesome because, well, IT'S AWESOME!!! He's also fond of taking a random 'Mech in missions because... well no one quite knows why. I think it's because it gives him a chance to pilot an Awesome without getting teased for taking an Awesome. At any rate, he combined these into a very special randomly awesome tournament to celebrate his birthday.
The rules were pretty simple. Random 'Mechs, random maps, random conditions. Each pilot was also required to take an Awesome 8Q once during the tournament, and had to declare their intent to do so before anything was randomized for that mission. Each pilot was also allowed to re-randomize something twice during the tournament. Normally that'd be their own randomly sucky 'Mech, but a few enterprising pilots also randomized other people's randomly awesome 'Mechs. But not the Awesome, because that wasn't allowed. Once or twice someone also re-randomized the conditions when those turned out particularly nasty, but for the most part the rounds went as randomized.
We had 17 pilots which required 3 missions per round. Despite everything being randomized, the usual suspects slowly worked their way to the top of the leaderboard. By the end of the night, Soto, Solstice, Justice, Gurn, Black Mantis, Zax, and Phoenix were on top. Actually Soto was tied with EDGEKOOLZ, so they fought a random duel to see who made the finals. Soto pulled a Raven 1X while EDGEKOOLZ pulled a Raven 3L, so Soto re-rolled his own 'Mech and got a Hellhound. EDGEKOOLZ was out of re-rolls so was stuck with the Raven. Besides it was only appropriate that the birthday boy reach the finals of his own tournament!
Not too surprisingly, the finals finished with Justice on top followed by Black Mantis and Gurn. This being a random tournament, though, the prizes were randomized. Justice still managed to get 1st prize, but Gurn got 2nd prize and Black Mantis got 3rd prize. Justice was also awarded control of Madagascar.
After the tournament another random final was held amongst randomly selected pilots for control of Scandinavia. Which was awarded to a random pilot from the random final instead of to the winner. KwikPain won the mission and was given control of the map compass, while Solstice was randomly awarded control of Scandinavia.
Congratulations to everyone, and Happy Birthday to Soto! You're Awesome!
--Roadkill OUT
Soto is fond of the Awesome because, well,
The rules were pretty simple. Random 'Mechs, random maps, random conditions. Each pilot was also required to take an Awesome 8Q once during the tournament, and had to declare their intent to do so before anything was randomized for that mission. Each pilot was also allowed to re-randomize something twice during the tournament. Normally that'd be their own randomly sucky 'Mech, but a few enterprising pilots also randomized other people's randomly awesome 'Mechs. But not the Awesome, because that wasn't allowed. Once or twice someone also re-randomized the conditions when those turned out particularly nasty, but for the most part the rounds went as randomized.
We had 17 pilots which required 3 missions per round. Despite everything being randomized, the usual suspects slowly worked their way to the top of the leaderboard. By the end of the night, Soto, Solstice, Justice, Gurn, Black Mantis, Zax, and Phoenix were on top. Actually Soto was tied with EDGEKOOLZ, so they fought a random duel to see who made the finals. Soto pulled a Raven 1X while EDGEKOOLZ pulled a Raven 3L, so Soto re-rolled his own 'Mech and got a Hellhound. EDGEKOOLZ was out of re-rolls so was stuck with the Raven. Besides it was only appropriate that the birthday boy reach the finals of his own tournament!
Not too surprisingly, the finals finished with Justice on top followed by Black Mantis and Gurn. This being a random tournament, though, the prizes were randomized. Justice still managed to get 1st prize, but Gurn got 2nd prize and Black Mantis got 3rd prize. Justice was also awarded control of Madagascar.
After the tournament another random final was held amongst randomly selected pilots for control of Scandinavia. Which was awarded to a random pilot from the random final instead of to the winner. KwikPain won the mission and was given control of the map compass, while Solstice was randomly awarded control of Scandinavia.
Congratulations to everyone, and Happy Birthday to Soto! You're Awesome!
--Roadkill OUT
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Tandem Tournament results and Soto's Awesome Birthday Bash!
Greetings Pilots!
The Airlock was hoppin' once again on a Saturday night as we closed out the first season of the Tandem Leagues. A couple of random illnesses wreaked havoc with attendance, but hopefully everyone will recover quickly so that Soto's Awesomely Random Birthday Bash will be ... well, awesome!
4 teams participated in the end of season tournaments. I joined Zax on a team so that we could fill things out, but we weren't eligible for prizes. We kept to the tandem theme, but of course for a tournament the missions need to be head-to-head so that's what we did. First up: Red Planet!
Round 1 was The Running of the Bulls on Wiseguy's Wake. All pilots had to take Bull class VTVs (with or without weapons) and the goal was to score as many laps + kills as possible. Gurn immediately noticed the loophole in the rules - Red Planet doesn't allow for team play other than Martian Football, so kills on your Tandem teammate count as kills. He and JB cooperated and recorded an impressive 35 points - 10 more than any other team - launching themselves into an early lead with Justice and KwikPain tied with Zax and I for second. Soto and Edgekoolz trailed with 10 points.
Round 2 was OK Corral on Berserkers. Weapons aren't required, but they're highly recommended. Everyone took Dragons. :) Most kills wins the round, so the fighting was fast and furious and degenerated into a drop zone madhouse after a relatively calm start in score zone 1. Once again team kills counted in your tally, but the action was so furious in this mission that there was no good way to cooperate. Zax and I managed to eek out a relatively close win over Gurn and JB 58-54, but it wasn't enough to unseat them from their overall lead.
Round 3 was Highs and Lows on Yip's Yahoorama. The difference between your score and your teammate's score is your team score. Once again Gurn and JB had the most solid team strategy, with Gurn in a Tarantula and JB in a Quark playing "feed the spider." Their 69735 net points narrowly beat the 68691 posted by Zax and I, in no small part because Gurn's spider managed to eat my Black Speck for dessert on a couple of my boost runs. Justice and KwikPain posted 43839 while Soto and Edgekoolz posted 34128. After round 3, Gurn and JB had a 293 to 270 lead over Zax and I.
Round 4 was the Need for Speed and was a Particle Accelerator on Burnt Cookies. Only Quarks and Leptons are allowed as VTVs in a Particle Accelerator and it threw some pilots off because they're so used to using the Black Speck. A Quark is significantly faster and significantly more fragile, so braking timing is different if you want to survive entering the score zone. Zax and I did eventually get our timing re-calibrated, though, and posted a total of 97936 points between us. Gurn and JB finished neck-and-neck with Justice and KwikPain, posting 44772 and 43750 respectively. Soto and Edgekoolz rounded things out with 38229, but would have finished much better if not for a couple of catastrophic crashes near the end of the mission that nearly wiped out Edgekoolz's entire score.
After the dust cleared from Edgekoolz's wreckage in round 4, and leaving out Zax and I as the ineligible "filler" team, the final results were:
Gurn/JB 339 points
Justice/KwikPain 263 points
Soto/Edgekoolz 189 points
Congratulations to Gurn and JB for their Season One tournament victory!
After a short break, we started held the BattleTech tournament. The format was similar, though the teams mixed around a bit. Zax and Edgekoolz needed to leave, so I teamed up with Soto and uglyman teamed up with Wyoh to fill things in. This meant that only Gurn/JB and Justice/KwikPain were competing for the prizes. See... you really should show up for these tournaments!
Round 1 for Battletech was called Your Momma and was fought in Storm Canyon, day, clear. One pilot on each team had to take a 'Mech that was exactly twice as heavy as the other pilot's 'Mech. At the end of the mission, each team was awarded an additional 100 points for each kill on an opposing team's "Momma" 'Mech. Soto and I jumped into an early lead with a victory over uglyman and Wyoh, while Justice and KwikPain victory over Gurn and JB put them in second.
Round 2 was What's Mine is Mine was a standard CTF match at night in the clear. Wyoh and uglyman narrowly defeated Gurn and JB 5475 to 5375. Soto and I tried a 2 runner strategy which backfired when Justice and KwikPain had a Hauptman IIC as a defender. We had to draw KwikPain's Hauptman out away from the flag to have any chance, which in turn suppressed both teams' scores. We won the mission 2700 to 2475 but dropped far behind Wyoh and uglyman in the overall standings due to our much lower scores. Gurn and JB were right behind Soto and I, while Justice and KwikPain fell to a relatively distant fourth.
Round 3 was Get Off My Lawn, and modified form of King of the Hill fought on Ghost Highway in heavy fog. After the mission, each team received an additional 10 points for each kill on another team's 'Mech. This modifier ended up being largely irrelevant in a head-to-head match but might have been interesting in a 4-team mission. Soto and I pulled out a win over Gurn and JB 1328 to 1257 while Justice and KwikPain beat Wyoh and uglyman 1312 to 1121. For those of you familiar with typical KOTH scores, those are really big numbers for a tandem. In an 8-person KOTH match the winner is typically around 500 and most people finish with 300-350. All 4 teams in the tournament made great use of strategy to gain as much bonus time as possible for sole possession of the hill. Wyoh and uglyman held the lead after 3 rounds with 269 points, followed by Soto and I at 249, Justice and KwikPain at 242, and Gurn and JB at 231.
Round 4 was planned to be Bingo on Scarab Stronghold, but the format makes no sense for a head-to-head match. Teams were supposed to receive a 1000-point bonus for each team bingo after the mission, but since there was only one other team in the mission getting a bingo was trivial. So we ignored the bonus and ran it as a straight Team Attrition match. Justice and KwikPain dominated this round, scoring 8971 over Gurn and JB's 6750. Wyoh and uglyman beat Soto and I 7627 to 7216.
That left the final margin of victory between Justice/KwikPain and Gurn/JB as 331 to 317. Congratulations to Justice and KwikPain!
One last mention before I'm out - this week on FRIDAY NIGHT, MARCH 11TH we're running a special tournament to celebrate Soto's birthday. It's totally random and totally Awesome! Here are the rules:
1. Random 'Mechs, random terrain, and random conditions each round.
2. You get 2 re-rolls to use any time you want during the tournament. Get a 'Mech you don't like in a round? Re-roll your 'Mech! Someone else get a great 'Mech that you don't want to have to face? Re-roll their 'Mech! Don't like the map and conditions? Re-roll that, too! But you only get 2 re-rolls... after that you're stuck with what you get.
3. At some point during the tournament you must take an Awesome. Not a stock Awesome - no, that would be too good - an Awesome 8Q. You must declare your intention to take said Awesome 8Q before anything has been randomly generated for your mission in that round. Once you're locked into your Awesome 8Q, you may not re-roll anything for that mission nor may anyone else re-roll your 'Mech for you.
4. There will be 5 rounds scored using tournament points. Cumulative points wins control of Scandinavia.
5. After 5 rounds, there will be a final mission. Entry into the final mission will be determined randomly. Yes, you may re-roll that, too, if you still have a re-roll left. No, you may not "save" your Awesome for the final mission because you might not be in the final mission. The winner of the final mission will win something... random.
Oh, and there might be cake. Or there might not. It's hard to say since things are so random.
I hope to see you on Friday!
--Roadkill OUT
The Airlock was hoppin' once again on a Saturday night as we closed out the first season of the Tandem Leagues. A couple of random illnesses wreaked havoc with attendance, but hopefully everyone will recover quickly so that Soto's Awesomely Random Birthday Bash will be ... well, awesome!
4 teams participated in the end of season tournaments. I joined Zax on a team so that we could fill things out, but we weren't eligible for prizes. We kept to the tandem theme, but of course for a tournament the missions need to be head-to-head so that's what we did. First up: Red Planet!
Round 1 was The Running of the Bulls on Wiseguy's Wake. All pilots had to take Bull class VTVs (with or without weapons) and the goal was to score as many laps + kills as possible. Gurn immediately noticed the loophole in the rules - Red Planet doesn't allow for team play other than Martian Football, so kills on your Tandem teammate count as kills. He and JB cooperated and recorded an impressive 35 points - 10 more than any other team - launching themselves into an early lead with Justice and KwikPain tied with Zax and I for second. Soto and Edgekoolz trailed with 10 points.
Round 2 was OK Corral on Berserkers. Weapons aren't required, but they're highly recommended. Everyone took Dragons. :) Most kills wins the round, so the fighting was fast and furious and degenerated into a drop zone madhouse after a relatively calm start in score zone 1. Once again team kills counted in your tally, but the action was so furious in this mission that there was no good way to cooperate. Zax and I managed to eek out a relatively close win over Gurn and JB 58-54, but it wasn't enough to unseat them from their overall lead.
Round 3 was Highs and Lows on Yip's Yahoorama. The difference between your score and your teammate's score is your team score. Once again Gurn and JB had the most solid team strategy, with Gurn in a Tarantula and JB in a Quark playing "feed the spider." Their 69735 net points narrowly beat the 68691 posted by Zax and I, in no small part because Gurn's spider managed to eat my Black Speck for dessert on a couple of my boost runs. Justice and KwikPain posted 43839 while Soto and Edgekoolz posted 34128. After round 3, Gurn and JB had a 293 to 270 lead over Zax and I.
Round 4 was the Need for Speed and was a Particle Accelerator on Burnt Cookies. Only Quarks and Leptons are allowed as VTVs in a Particle Accelerator and it threw some pilots off because they're so used to using the Black Speck. A Quark is significantly faster and significantly more fragile, so braking timing is different if you want to survive entering the score zone. Zax and I did eventually get our timing re-calibrated, though, and posted a total of 97936 points between us. Gurn and JB finished neck-and-neck with Justice and KwikPain, posting 44772 and 43750 respectively. Soto and Edgekoolz rounded things out with 38229, but would have finished much better if not for a couple of catastrophic crashes near the end of the mission that nearly wiped out Edgekoolz's entire score.
After the dust cleared from Edgekoolz's wreckage in round 4, and leaving out Zax and I as the ineligible "filler" team, the final results were:
Gurn/JB 339 points
Justice/KwikPain 263 points
Soto/Edgekoolz 189 points
Congratulations to Gurn and JB for their Season One tournament victory!
After a short break, we started held the BattleTech tournament. The format was similar, though the teams mixed around a bit. Zax and Edgekoolz needed to leave, so I teamed up with Soto and uglyman teamed up with Wyoh to fill things in. This meant that only Gurn/JB and Justice/KwikPain were competing for the prizes. See... you really should show up for these tournaments!
Round 1 for Battletech was called Your Momma and was fought in Storm Canyon, day, clear. One pilot on each team had to take a 'Mech that was exactly twice as heavy as the other pilot's 'Mech. At the end of the mission, each team was awarded an additional 100 points for each kill on an opposing team's "Momma" 'Mech. Soto and I jumped into an early lead with a victory over uglyman and Wyoh, while Justice and KwikPain victory over Gurn and JB put them in second.
Round 2 was What's Mine is Mine was a standard CTF match at night in the clear. Wyoh and uglyman narrowly defeated Gurn and JB 5475 to 5375. Soto and I tried a 2 runner strategy which backfired when Justice and KwikPain had a Hauptman IIC as a defender. We had to draw KwikPain's Hauptman out away from the flag to have any chance, which in turn suppressed both teams' scores. We won the mission 2700 to 2475 but dropped far behind Wyoh and uglyman in the overall standings due to our much lower scores. Gurn and JB were right behind Soto and I, while Justice and KwikPain fell to a relatively distant fourth.
Round 3 was Get Off My Lawn, and modified form of King of the Hill fought on Ghost Highway in heavy fog. After the mission, each team received an additional 10 points for each kill on another team's 'Mech. This modifier ended up being largely irrelevant in a head-to-head match but might have been interesting in a 4-team mission. Soto and I pulled out a win over Gurn and JB 1328 to 1257 while Justice and KwikPain beat Wyoh and uglyman 1312 to 1121. For those of you familiar with typical KOTH scores, those are really big numbers for a tandem. In an 8-person KOTH match the winner is typically around 500 and most people finish with 300-350. All 4 teams in the tournament made great use of strategy to gain as much bonus time as possible for sole possession of the hill. Wyoh and uglyman held the lead after 3 rounds with 269 points, followed by Soto and I at 249, Justice and KwikPain at 242, and Gurn and JB at 231.
Round 4 was planned to be Bingo on Scarab Stronghold, but the format makes no sense for a head-to-head match. Teams were supposed to receive a 1000-point bonus for each team bingo after the mission, but since there was only one other team in the mission getting a bingo was trivial. So we ignored the bonus and ran it as a straight Team Attrition match. Justice and KwikPain dominated this round, scoring 8971 over Gurn and JB's 6750. Wyoh and uglyman beat Soto and I 7627 to 7216.
That left the final margin of victory between Justice/KwikPain and Gurn/JB as 331 to 317. Congratulations to Justice and KwikPain!
One last mention before I'm out - this week on FRIDAY NIGHT, MARCH 11TH we're running a special tournament to celebrate Soto's birthday. It's totally random and totally Awesome! Here are the rules:
1. Random 'Mechs, random terrain, and random conditions each round.
2. You get 2 re-rolls to use any time you want during the tournament. Get a 'Mech you don't like in a round? Re-roll your 'Mech! Someone else get a great 'Mech that you don't want to have to face? Re-roll their 'Mech! Don't like the map and conditions? Re-roll that, too! But you only get 2 re-rolls... after that you're stuck with what you get.
3. At some point during the tournament you must take an Awesome. Not a stock Awesome - no, that would be too good - an Awesome 8Q. You must declare your intention to take said Awesome 8Q before anything has been randomly generated for your mission in that round. Once you're locked into your Awesome 8Q, you may not re-roll anything for that mission nor may anyone else re-roll your 'Mech for you.
4. There will be 5 rounds scored using tournament points. Cumulative points wins control of Scandinavia.
5. After 5 rounds, there will be a final mission. Entry into the final mission will be determined randomly. Yes, you may re-roll that, too, if you still have a re-roll left. No, you may not "save" your Awesome for the final mission because you might not be in the final mission. The winner of the final mission will win something... random.
Oh, and there might be cake. Or there might not. It's hard to say since things are so random.
I hope to see you on Friday!
--Roadkill OUT
Friday, March 4, 2011
Tandem League end-of-season Tournaments
Hey everyone, don't forget the Tandem League's end-of-season tournaments tomorrow, Saturday, March 5th! They are open to everyone whether or not you participated in the league, so come on down. Don't worry if you don't already have a partner - we'll set you up with one before the tournaments start.
So what are these tournaments?
Both tournaments are for tandems, meaning you and your partner. Your team score is what counts, not your individual score. In some cases the missions will be pretty normal, but in other cases you'll be trying to do weird things in order to score points. Unlike the league itself, in these tournaments you'll be competing head-to-head against the other teams. Also since theses are the end-of-season tournaments for the Tandem League, teams that participated in the league will receive a bonus!
Each tournament will be four rounds scored normally using tournament points. Tandem League teams will start the tournament with a double-round score based on their finish in the League - the league winners will start with 18, 2nd place with 14, 3rd place with 12, etc. Cumulative points at the end of the 4 rounds will determine the winner!
The Red Planet tournament will start promptly at 7:00 pm, so please get to the Airlock early if you want to run any warmup missions. If you show up at 6:50 you probably won't get to warm up. Without going into too much detail, the four rounds for Red Planet will be: the Running of the Bulls, OK Corral, Highs and Lows, and The Need For Speed. One of these is a new format that we used to play occasionally at the Game Center but that to the best of my knowledge we haven't tried yet at the Airlock. Time to fix that!
The BattleTech tournament will start about 30 minutes after the Red Planet tournament ends, so probably around 9:30. That leaves enough time for the pods to be reset (if needed) and for people to take a short break. Then we'll start into the four rounds for BattleTech: Your Momma, What's Mine is Mine, Get Off My Lawn, and Bingo.
As usual there will be an all-night pass available that includes the tournament, so if you get there early you can get in a ton of missions.
I hope to see you all there!
--Roadkill OUT
So what are these tournaments?
Both tournaments are for tandems, meaning you and your partner. Your team score is what counts, not your individual score. In some cases the missions will be pretty normal, but in other cases you'll be trying to do weird things in order to score points. Unlike the league itself, in these tournaments you'll be competing head-to-head against the other teams. Also since theses are the end-of-season tournaments for the Tandem League, teams that participated in the league will receive a bonus!
Each tournament will be four rounds scored normally using tournament points. Tandem League teams will start the tournament with a double-round score based on their finish in the League - the league winners will start with 18, 2nd place with 14, 3rd place with 12, etc. Cumulative points at the end of the 4 rounds will determine the winner!
The Red Planet tournament will start promptly at 7:00 pm, so please get to the Airlock early if you want to run any warmup missions. If you show up at 6:50 you probably won't get to warm up. Without going into too much detail, the four rounds for Red Planet will be: the Running of the Bulls, OK Corral, Highs and Lows, and The Need For Speed. One of these is a new format that we used to play occasionally at the Game Center but that to the best of my knowledge we haven't tried yet at the Airlock. Time to fix that!
The BattleTech tournament will start about 30 minutes after the Red Planet tournament ends, so probably around 9:30. That leaves enough time for the pods to be reset (if needed) and for people to take a short break. Then we'll start into the four rounds for BattleTech: Your Momma, What's Mine is Mine, Get Off My Lawn, and Bingo.
As usual there will be an all-night pass available that includes the tournament, so if you get there early you can get in a ton of missions.
I hope to see you all there!
--Roadkill OUT
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Battle for Alaska results!
Lately at The Airlock people have been getting more interested in dueling while playing BattleTech Firestorm. Dueling has a grand history in the pods - there's even a special tournaments called Gunslingers that has been a part of VWE events since the mid 1990s - so uglyman thought that we should encourage our nascent duelists by holding a tournament. We put it together on short notice, uglyman dug up his copy of the movie Robot Jox, and the Battle for Alaska was on! Crash and burn!
Since no-return duels tend to be fairly short and to the point, we ran the tournament as a full round robin. Everyone played everyone else once. This isn't always feasible, but in this case we had 8 pilots so it worked perfectly. I think we might have been able to handle as many as 12 pilots and still do a full round robin, but 8 made the tournament nice and easy.
The rules were simple. Full advanced mode, including armor mode. Pick a medium 'Mech off the wall as your starting 'Mech. If you win you continue using that 'Mech. If you lose you may change 'Mechs for your next duel and, while changing, you may move up a weight class. (So heavies after one loss and assaults after 2 losses.) To help prevent ties the entire tournament was conducted in King of the Hill mode and the KOTH points were used only as a tiebreaker. I didn't expect there to be many ties, but there were at least 3 that I can remember so using KOTH mode turned out to be a really good idea.
There were a lot of different 'Mechs chosen throughout the night. The Shadowcat was the most popular medium, but we also so a Chimera and a Hunchback. At the heavy level the Cauldron Born was popular, but we also saw a Nova Cat, a Mad Cat, and a Thanatos. At the assault level we saw Templars, a Battlemaster IIC, an Annihilator, and a Kodiak. I've probably missed a few along the way, too.
After an hour and a half of intense dueling, there was a tie at the top between Justice and Zax, both of whom finished the round robin with 5-2 records. So, this being a dueling tournament and to continue the Robot Jox theme, we made them duel again for the championship!
Final duel youtube video
Ultimately Justice prevailed and was given control of Alaska. There's even a Risk board on the wall in The Airlock to prove it.
There was also a tie for 3rd place between Gurn, JB, and KwikPain but instead of performing another small round-robin which could have easily resulted in another tie, uglyman decided to award all three pilots the 3rd place prize.
Speaking of which, uglyman has really upped the ante with prizes - 1st place received a free pass to member's night for the entire month of March! 2nd place received 2 free member's nights in March, and the three 3rd place pilots each received 1 free member's night in March.
As always, thanks to the pilots who came out for the tournament. You're the ones who make the events!
--Roadkill OUT
Since no-return duels tend to be fairly short and to the point, we ran the tournament as a full round robin. Everyone played everyone else once. This isn't always feasible, but in this case we had 8 pilots so it worked perfectly. I think we might have been able to handle as many as 12 pilots and still do a full round robin, but 8 made the tournament nice and easy.
The rules were simple. Full advanced mode, including armor mode. Pick a medium 'Mech off the wall as your starting 'Mech. If you win you continue using that 'Mech. If you lose you may change 'Mechs for your next duel and, while changing, you may move up a weight class. (So heavies after one loss and assaults after 2 losses.) To help prevent ties the entire tournament was conducted in King of the Hill mode and the KOTH points were used only as a tiebreaker. I didn't expect there to be many ties, but there were at least 3 that I can remember so using KOTH mode turned out to be a really good idea.
There were a lot of different 'Mechs chosen throughout the night. The Shadowcat was the most popular medium, but we also so a Chimera and a Hunchback. At the heavy level the Cauldron Born was popular, but we also saw a Nova Cat, a Mad Cat, and a Thanatos. At the assault level we saw Templars, a Battlemaster IIC, an Annihilator, and a Kodiak. I've probably missed a few along the way, too.
After an hour and a half of intense dueling, there was a tie at the top between Justice and Zax, both of whom finished the round robin with 5-2 records. So, this being a dueling tournament and to continue the Robot Jox theme, we made them duel again for the championship!
Final duel youtube video
Ultimately Justice prevailed and was given control of Alaska. There's even a Risk board on the wall in The Airlock to prove it.
There was also a tie for 3rd place between Gurn, JB, and KwikPain but instead of performing another small round-robin which could have easily resulted in another tie, uglyman decided to award all three pilots the 3rd place prize.
Speaking of which, uglyman has really upped the ante with prizes - 1st place received a free pass to member's night for the entire month of March! 2nd place received 2 free member's nights in March, and the three 3rd place pilots each received 1 free member's night in March.
As always, thanks to the pilots who came out for the tournament. You're the ones who make the events!
--Roadkill OUT
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)